Transformer

By Nick Lane

Categories: Science & Math

Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death (2022) is a work of popular science by Nick Lane, a professor of evolutionary biochemistry at University College London, published in the US by W. W. Norton. Lane centers the book on the Krebs cycle, the chemistry at the heart of metabolism. Arguing that the cycle can run in reverse and that metabolism came before genes, he links it to the origin of life in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, to aging and cancer, and even, speculatively, to consciousness.

Recommended by 1 person

• Lex Fridman: “Nick Lane... author of some of my favorite books on biology, science, and life ever written, including his two most recent titles, Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death, and The Vital Question: Why Is Life the Way It Is?”